


A Study In Starkadders

by AJHall



Category: Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons, Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: 221B Ficlet, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-11
Updated: 2012-11-11
Packaged: 2017-11-18 10:31:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/560050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AJHall/pseuds/AJHall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In <i>The Veiled Lodger</i> Watson claims Holmes was in practice for 23 years and that he assisted him for 17 of them.  Knocking off three years for the Great Hiatus and assuming they met in 1881 gives us a Holmes who begins practice in 1878 and retires in 1901 or thereabouts to keep bees on the Sussex Downs.  Watson appears to have lost contact with his old friend some time in the late 1900s, before they were reunited in August 1914, the reasons for this breach in their long friendship being unspecified.</p><p><i>Cold Comfort Farm</i>, also set in Sussex, takes place some short time after "the Anglo-Nicaraguan Wars of 1948".  </p><p>Once one applied a little arithmetic, the solution became elementary...</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Study In Starkadders

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oursin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oursin/gifts).



I groaned aloud – which, of course, had led to our downfall in the first place. How different the spirit which moved me now, though, compared to those earlier, fatally enthusiastic vocalisations! 

"Holmes, we are ruined. When the child tells her story – "

Holmes leant against the woodpile and lit a Sobranie with a nonchalance equally inappropriate both to our perilous situation and the inflammability of our surroundings.

"Calm yourself, Watson. Miss Ada's family are my nearest neighbours. I have, naturally, observed them with close attention. Rampant egoists to a man. Whatever she reveals, be assured they are far too self-centred to hear it."

I gaped in horror at my friend's callousness. "Holmes, have you no care for the child herself? The writings of Dr Freud of Vienna suggest that exposing one of such tender years to a scene of such intense intimacy can scar the psyche, risking hysteric effects well into adulthood."

Holmes smiled. "My dear Watson, you malign Miss Ada's mental robustness. As she quitted the scene her expression read like a book. 'I'll dine out on that for the rest of my days!'" His Grecian forehead furrowed for a second. "Though, to do her justice, 'dining out' is too banal for an ingenious sprite like Miss Ada. However she turns today to her advantage will doubtless be considerably more baroque."


End file.
